Another politician who refuses to leave office...
Soldiers detained the president of Honduras, Jose Manuel Zelaya, on Sunday - the day he set for a referendum on changing the constitution to allow him to run for another term....despite his time being up. It took the military to force him out. Even a law breaker like George W. stepped down when his time was up. Let's hope it doesn't come to this in the U.S. We have a mayor in New York that bought his way into office and now has overturned term limits, with the help of the City Council...
[...]why doesn’t he respect the fact that twice New Yorkers voted for term limits, yet Bloomberg felt that he had the right to overturn the will of the people and put himself on the ballot again for a third term. What is Bloomberg afraid of, he has no respect for the voters of New York and he bribed the members of the City Council to ok a third term for him by promising a third term for those who would have been also been termed out this year, he is once again trying to buy to office of the mayor. They way that the mayor is trying secure his third term I think is enough to vote him out, and any council member who supported the mayors efforts should also be removed from office....to remain as Mayor indefinitely. This decision ignores the will of people whom put term limits in the first place. We don't want to end up like Chicago, which has the Daley dynasty. Is it any wonder that the NY State legislators are behaving like thugs. Even former NY Mayor Rudy Giuliani agrees on the need for term limits:
NEW YORK STATE government is not working. This has been true for some time. But the paralysis and confusion that has overtaken the capital demonstrates the need to confront this dysfunction directly and take decisive steps to solve it once and for all. That’s why I’m calling on Albany to convene a state constitutional convention.If it's good for the state legislatures than why not Congress. What do we have to lose?
[...]All statewide elected officials and members of the Legislature should be term limited to bring new blood into Albany while stopping the careerism that too often blocks real progress. A citizens’ legislature would be more effective in addressing New Yorkers’ problems with a fresh perspective.
Fifteen state legislatures have term limits in effect today and most have experienced a complete turnover in their membership. Term limits have prevented more than a thousand experienced legislators from running for reelection. New legislators have to learn their jobs in less than six years, chair important committees in their first term, and even serve as Speaker of the House after just two or three years in office. The leadership, culture and organization inside those legislatures have had to adjust to limited terms in office. So have those who work outside the legislative halls, such as bureaucrats, governors and lobbyists.
Voter initiatives of the 1990s are responsible for states adopting legislative limits. In an online column, Wall Street Journal columnist Steve Moore wrote that “limits on politicians' time in office were enacted or reaffirmed by enormous margins nearly everywhere they were on the ballot in what might have been the loudest referendum for term limitation by voters ever.” The Republicans hopped on the bandwagon.
